SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced two new grant recipients of its Agricultural Greater Good Initiative at the 21st International Plant and Animal Genome Conference. The recipients, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa – International Livestock Research Institute Hub (BecA-ILRI Hub), are pioneering applications of Illumina technologies to increase crop yields and reduce poverty and hunger. ICRISAT will use the grant to expand its efforts to improve the productivity of pigeonpea, a staple crop used for food, feed and fuel production in Africa and India. BecA-ILRI Hub will use the grant to expand its study of genetic resistance to cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease, both of which have infected large percentages of crops across East Africa where cassava is a major source of nutrition.